Telephones Online Blog – Reviews of Home and Office Telephones and other Products from TelephonesOnline.co.uk
BT Cordless Phones November 23, 2007
I have long been a gadget and technology enthusiast, but only quite recently have come to appreciate the leaps and bounds that the home cordless phone has made.
I have looked at the ranges on the Telephones Online website and tried to assess each model on the grounds of technical specifications and manufacturer. It became apparent to me, looking at the hundreds of phones online, that they all did pretty much the same : DECT technology I found is standard so the range of the cordless handsets are limited by the technology they contain. ( generally about 300 meters in ideal conditions). Similarly talk times and standby times are governed by the handset’s batteries and these seem to be generic across many brands of cordless phone. Most brands of digital phone allow the additional handsets to be registered to the base station so allowing twin and triple handset systems with call transfer and intercom. They all now seem to have nicely lit screens. It is as understood these days also that a digital phone will have as standard a decent telephone directory allowing the storage of names and numbers.
So I look through the endless catalogue of telephones. How to differentiate? I asked a few friends about their experiences with Cordless Phones and the responses were varied to say the least :
“I like to phone my wife and ask for a cup of tea” – says Stamati
“Great for talking on the toilet” – replied Alex
“Whatever” – was Matt’s wordy response
It swiftly became apparent that I was unlikely to garner any useful advice from my friends so I was back to basics.
I made my choice based on two things, looks and looks, and to me the BT Cordless phones knocked the stuffing out of theri competitors hands down. The 
BT Esprit 1200 Exudes Grace and good breeding, while the BT Freestyle 310 SMS (above )has the sleek looks more commonly associated with an expensive mobile phone. But soon I was wowed to the max. 
, this was just the sort of beauty I was after, look at is here in its full glory, this DECT phone was all I could ask for. I never even looked into the deeper specifications of it, as soon as I saw it I had to have it. This is the BT Reveal Digital Cordless Answer Phone . I was not suprised to see that it had received favourable reviews in the national press. This Phone has style so I bought it.
This Telephones Online Shopping experience was sent to us by Neil Bradstock
Cordless phone batteries November 15, 2007
I have been a customer of Telephones Online for many years now and have had great experiences with their customer services; I have received sound technical advice in choosing a cordless phone and been the recipient of unwavering support when I have had a problem with a telephone. The first time the unit, as I remember, had been purchased as an additional handset for an existing telephone but turned out to be incompatible, the second was because the phone had arrived without batteries, this caused a problem, but they were swiftly and personally dispatched for delivery the next day.
Cordless phone batteries are extremely important for the overall performance of a DECT phone. they will naturally influence both standby time and talk time, but also have a bearing on the range you can get from a digital phone. Many people would be surprised to know that the standby time of a battery is inversely proportional to its distance from the base station – this being due to its constant need to maintain a connection with the transmitter in the base.
Early digital phones used Ni-Cd (Nickel Cadmium) cells which tended to deteriorate quite quickly, these were often expensive to buy as they were manufacturers own and hence priced accordingly. Many of these early cordless phone batteries had teething problems and were the cause of many a complaint. More recently it has become the norm to supply handsets with generic rechargeable NiMh ( Nickel Metal Hydride ) AA or AAA batteries. These are available in many shops and even newsagents as they are used now in many household goods such as digital cameras and the like. In general the ampage of the battery will determine its length of charge maintenance, though many handsets will not be suitable for higher power batteries.
The more modern batteries supplied with cordless phones do not have a memory, and hence, no longer require such a long initial drip charge on initial use as per the old style, where one was recommended to leave them overnight for full lifetime battery performance.
New Telephones November 13, 2007
My first cordless phone was a BT Freestyle 1100. It was an analogue cordless phone with answermachine. It was a rather unsubtle dark green colour but it certainly did the trick. I had lived without a home phone for years previous to that as I had lived in a small enough village that a pop to the local cafe was enough for a days communications. The BT Freestyle 1100 worked and took answermachine messages for me while I was out which was all I asked of it. Little did I know what degustations of technology awaited me.
A year of so later I was given as a present a real DECT phone, ( DECT is a Digital European Cordless Technology standard). It was a BT Digital Cordless phone made by Siemens, a BT Diverse 2011 Executive, it was really all singing and dancing with a backlit screen ( still monochrome in those days) and a 100 name and number alphanumeric memory. I also subscribed to BT Caller Display so that I could see the name of the person calling before I picked up the phone. My communications had advanced a lot since the village days, no more cafe arrangements for me now I lived in the City, but a digital phone at the heart of my home.
That is all a few years ago now. We all take for granted immediate connections via mobile phone and the internet, my home phone is still a BT Cordless phone, a Diverse 6450. It is a twin handset system and has a colour screen, games, SIM card reader and a handset speakerphone. Admittedly it is slight overkill, but it all is these days…technological advances for their own sake – and fun.
BT Caller Display | Phone Freedom November 6, 2007
The phone rings and I stumble through the living room to find it. It is emitting a nasty beeping noise which grates upon my fragile consciousness. I thumb the green button on the handset and realise that I am too late, I have missed the call, still half asleep I make my way back to the sofa where I was snoozing..
This scenario can be a thing of the past with a shiny new cordless phone, with BT Caller Display you can have ( such as on a mobile phone ) the callers identity broadcast to your telephone before it even thinks about ringing. It is the main reason that I chose not to go with a cable provider, it is a must for any home phone system. As your handset is rarely at your fingertips, unlike your Nokia or Sony Ericsson, you really get massive benefits from a digital cordless phone with Caller Display. Look at it like this :
Your home phone has a telephone directory on it. You assign different ringtones ( often from a selection of smooth polyphonics) to different callers. This way when your telephone is first sprung into action it knows what to do, it lets you know who is calling allowing you the casual luxury of deciding whether to get up and answer it or whether to kick back and let it ring.
BT are currently offering this service as part of many packages or for a small monthly charge and have the follwing information available to users, both prospective and present :
- You can dial 141 before calling a number to prevent your number being displayed to another person
- If you are ex directory or unlisted and wish your number to be displayed, dial 142 before the number you are calling.
- Order Caller Line Restriction to permanently block your number being displayed
So get it enabled ( if you have a BT Telephone Contract ) and have the opportunity at last to filter your incoming phone calls.
From BT Website :Caller Display allows you to see the number of the person calling. Caller Display cannot disclose the number if the number is withheld or unavailable. If your phone doesn’t have a compatible screen, you’ll need a Caller Display Unit.
Choose from a huge range here : BT Caller Display Telephones
